A Short Timeout for Antimatter & Chips

“This simulated image illustrates the production of anti-hyperhydrogen-4, a new antimatter hypernucleus observed by a joint research team comprising both Chinese and foreign physicists. (Institute of Modern Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences/Handout via Xinhua)”

The following article published by Xinhua exemplifies the very distorted “strange bedfellow” relationship existing between China and the Outlaw US Empire. The reported event occurred at a facility located in the US but was dominated by Chinese physicists and physics students. The Global Times report that follows provides an update on the health of China’s chip industry that’s having a war waged on it by the Outlaw US Empire. Both items impact the overall realm of geopolitics. And the first also poses great implications for metaphysics:

China Focus: Chinese, foreign physicists make new discovery in antimatter

A joint research team made up of Chinese and foreign physicists has observed a new antimatter hypernucleus, by using a heavy ion collider in the United States, marking an important step forward in the exploration of antimatter.

The discovery of anti-hyperhydrogen-4, which is the heaviest antimatter hypernucleus observed in experiments to date, was made by a research team led by the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The study was published in the latest issue of the academic journal Nature.

Current physics assumes that the properties of matter and antimatter are symmetrical and that equal amounts of matter and antimatter existed at the birth of the universe. Fortunately, some mysterious physical mechanism led to a slight asymmetry in the early universe. After the annihilation of most matter and antimatter, approximately one in ten billion matter particles survived, which formed the matter world we see today, scientists explained.

"What caused the difference in quantities of matter and antimatter in the universe? To answer this question, an important approach is to create new antimatter in the laboratory and study its properties," said Qiu Hao, a researcher from IMP.

In today's matter-dominated world, antimatter is extremely rare because it easily annihilates with surrounding matter. Antimatter nuclei and antimatter hypernuclei are even more difficult to produce. Since scientists predicted the existence of antimatter in 1928, only six types of antimatter (hyper) nuclei have been discovered, Qiu said.

The newly discovered anti-hyperhydrogen-4 was produced at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) in the United States. RHIC can accelerate heavy ion beams to nearly the speed of light and make them collide.

These collisions simulate the conditions of the early universe in the laboratory, producing fireballs with temperatures of several trillion degrees, which contain approximately equal amounts of matter and antimatter. As the fireball rapidly expands and cools, some antimatter escapes annihilation with matter and is detected by a detector named STAR.

"After analyzing experimental data of approximately 6.6 billion heavy-ion collision events, we reconstructed anti-hyperhydrogen-4 from its decay products," said Wu Junlin, a PhD student at IMP.

The researchers also measured the lifetime of anti-hyperhydrogen-4 and found no significant difference from that of its corresponding particle hyperhydrogen-4 within the measurement precision, further verifying the symmetry between matter and antimatter properties. [My Emphasis]

Ah yes, Nature’s physical mysteries and the machines built to try and discover them. Will Humanity survive long enough to discover most of them?

A chip manufacture machine Photo: VCG

Most know of the Trade War initiated against China by Team Trump that initially began with raised tariffs and the kidnapping of a senior Huawei official on bogus charges followed by Covid which was blamed on China when the evidence implicates the Outlaw US Empire and its Oligopolistic BigPharma. Policy continuity was extended by Team Biden and the Trade War escalated in an attempt to slow China’s economy and scientific progress in the High-Tech realm which is one of the few areas where the Empire still has a competitive advantage, although that’s rapidly eroding, and in some sectors the Empire lags far behind. The article makes clear that one of the Empire’s leading tech corporations—Apple—refuses to abandon China and its market, thus exemplifying the Trade War’s status:

China's semiconductor companies report stellar operational gains despite US crackdown

China's semiconductor companies posted stellar first-half gains as the global semiconductor industry staged a strong rebound. 

Despite reckless US crackdowns, Chinese semiconductor firms have made big strides in self-reliance and fared more prominently in the global semiconductor industry, Chinese analysts said on Wednesday.

Of the 68 semiconductor companies that have released their financial reports for the first half, 40 reported revenue gains of more than 50 percent, the Securities Times reported on Wednesday. According to CITIC, there are 157 A-share listed companies on China's semiconductor industrial chain.

Companies making storage chips, contact image sensor chips and system-on-a-chip products posted impressive gains, the Securities Times report said.

The reports provided a snapshot of China's semiconductor industry, which has benefited from a resurgence of the consumer electronics market both at home and abroad.

"Despite tough US sanctions in recent years, China's semiconductor industry has not only survived but also thrived. We've seen significant growth in production capacity, especially in mature processes, with exports surging, particularly to Southeast Asian markets like Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia," Ma Jihua, a veteran telecom industry observer, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

"This expansion has been a key driver in the recovery of the global consumer electronics industry - lowering costs, increasing accessibility and sparking innovation across the board," Ma noted. "China's contribution to this sector is undeniable."

Wang Peng, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Wednesday that, driven by multiple factors including technological innovation, a rebound in market demand and policy support, the domestic semiconductor sector is expected to remain in an upward cycle through 2025.

For instance, Apple's original equipment manufacturing partner Foxconn is significantly increasing its workforce at its production base in Zhengzhou, Central China's Henan Province as it ramps up production ahead of Apple's new iPhone release.

In a report on Monday, domestic news outlet Caijing estimated that some 84.8 percent of Apple's annual output of 230 million smartphones will be assembled in China, with Foxconn's Henan facility playing an irreplaceable role.

Christophe Fouquet, CEO of Netherlands-based lithography system provider ASML, also said he believes that the world needs the "legacy chips" being produced in China, according to German business news outlet Handelsblatt.

Legacy chips are those manufactured using older, less advanced technologies. Due to the pyramid-shaped structure of global chip demand, most of the demand is still for legacy chips, according to analysts.

Ma noted that, concerned about potential US sanctions, many Chinese companies have increasingly opted for Chinese-made chips. This shift has also expanded the market and significantly boosted the growth of China's semiconductor industry.

"China's dominance in mature semiconductor nodes is increasing, with higher yields and lower production costs. Many American companies are becoming more dependent on Chinese products," Ma said.

"Facing the pressure, China's semiconductor industry has not only withstood the challenges but also has thrived, and it has strong momentum to grow faster in the future," Ma said.

In the first seven months of 2024, China's chip exports reached 640.91 billion yuan ($89.85 billion), up 25.8 percent year-on-year to a new record, according to official data. [My Emphasis]

Helping China to attain new chip export records IMO isn’t what Team Biden had in mind when illegally sanctioning China. Even Western analysts are now writing that illegal sanctions are generally counter-productive when levied on nations with mature economies and boomerang the intended ill affects onto the sanctioning nation(s).

Many Gym readers also read Martyanov’s blog, so I suggest readers click the link to read this short item that’s a product of what Martyanov pursues intellectually, which has a strategic bearing on Geopolitics. His latest attempt at humor is also now available.

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